Looking for the Rot Behind Oracle Odor

SACRAMENTO

This is what is known so far about the Oracle software scandal, based on a long legislative investigation: The Davis administration exhibited incompetence.

But that’s just for starters.

“Gross and reckless incompetence,” says Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside), a member of the investigating joint audit committee. Hardly anybody following this would disagree.

Indeed, given the smelly circumstances, Gov. Gray Davis would happily settle for a verdict of incompetence. Even gross and reckless.

The governor might wince, however, at some other conclusions: His appointees have displayed arrogance, a cavalier attitude toward the taxpayers’ money and unseemly finger-pointing.

And, oh yes, some surely have been lying--like Arun Baheti, Davis’ fired director of e-government. Baheti swore he couldn’t remember the name of a bar where an Oracle lobbyist slipped him a $25,000 check for Davis’ reelection just days after the $95-million software contract was signed.

What has not been determined is the level of corruption.

Was it merely corruption of common sense caused by a desire to curry favor with a Silicon Valley high roller, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison? Or maybe a natural inclination, by some administration officials, to please an important senator? Or a last-ditch effort to save a troubled department, Information Technology?

Or was this plain old sleazy corruption involving payoffs?

“I wouldn’t discount it,” says Assemblyman Dean Florez (D-Shafter), the committee chairman. Fortunately, Florez has been pushing the investigation, even if some fellow Democrats would rather he not dig too deeply.

At the minimum, this scandal reflects badly on government generally and the Davis administration specifically. There is a careless disregard for taxpayers’ money that is legitimate fodder for any right-wing talk host.

Just one sign: Kari Dohn, an aide to Cabinet Secretary Susan Kennedy, testified that the Oracle deal “was a low priority” in the governor’s office. (It then was fighting the energy crisis.)

Dohn referred to the signing of a “governor’s action request” (GAR)--which was needed to authorize the Oracle contract--as “almost a ministerial act.”

It was a ministerial act that, very strangely, needed only 22 days to accomplish--light speed for government.

“I’ve never seen anything that large move this quickly,” testified Debbie Leibrock, technology chief for the state Finance Department. She, like other civil servants, opposed the deal, but was overruled by Davis’ appointees.

This was a ministerial act, according to state Auditor Elaine Howle, that could waste $41 million over six years. Davis is trying to rip up the contract.

Oracle and its middleman, Logicon, claimed the state would save $16 million over the same period because of volume discounts. Like car salesmen, they threatened to quickly withdraw the offer if the state didn’t move fast.

Nobody in state government checked out Oracle’s figures or even negotiated with the hustlers. Officials merely converted the offer into a contract, bureaucrats have testified. “We had only a PowerPoint presentation from Logicon,” Leibrock recalled.

You could get dizzy trying to follow the finger-pointing.

Kennedy, who added the final crucial signature on the GAR, said she expected Finance Director Tim Gage to check it all out. Gage testified that General Services Director Barry Keene (since fired) had assured him he’d analyzed the data. But Keene and Consumer Affairs Secretary Aileen Adams testified they had relied on Information Technology Director Elias Cortez (since suspended). And Cortez said crunching numbers was Gage’s job.

Nobody has linked Davis directly to any of this. But Republicans are suspicious of Oracle campaign donations--not the little $25,000 (since returned), but the potential for bundles.

“You got rolled,” Sen. Ray Haynes (R-Riverside) told Gage Tuesday night, adding that the only person powerful enough to roll a finance director is the governor.

“How on God’s green footstool can you tell us that Director Keene buffaloed you?”

Here are some pieces of a possible scenario:

Gage is a former legislative staffer, low-key and deferential. Keene had been an important senator.

This Oracle mess started with Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), a budget subcommittee chairman, phoning Gage and asking him to set up a meeting with Logicon pitchmen. Gage did. Polanco’s son works for Oracle. Also, Polanco strongly pushed Cortez for department director.

Beyond that, Cortez’s department needed a big score to save it from the ax.

Maybe some of that fits.

Whether it does or not, Davis aides have displayed incompetence. And some are still working for him.